Dead or meditating? A guru awaits his fate in the freezer

Jason Koutsoukis in New Delhi

Sometime in the early hours of January 29, doctors agree that the heart of Indian guru His Holiness Shri Ashutosh Maharaj stopped beating.

Disciples of His Holiness, world renowned founder of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission) religious order, believe this was the moment their guru entered a state of intense yogic meditation known as samadhi, a period of special bonding with the divine.

Expecting their master’s imminent return to earthly consciousness, Maharaj’s devotees have stored his body in a commercial freezer to simulate the freezing Himalayan environment they believe is the traditional setting for yogis who reach this ultimate stage of meditation.

“We are very certain that he is alive and we believe he will be coming back to us very soon,” a young male disciple dressed in army fatigues told Fairfax Media outside one of the yogi’s meditation centres in south Delhi.

Each day doctors at Maharaj’s 100 acre estate in the Jalandhar district of the Punjab enter the heavily guarded freezer to check for signs of his awakening.

The guru’s wife and son, with whom he had been estranged for decades, share a more orthodox diagnosis of the renowned spiritual leader’s inanimate state, more commonly known as death.

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Unconvinced that Maharaj, who was believed to be in his 70s,will emerge from the deep freezer anytime soon, the family has asked the Punjab High Court to intervene and determine a cause of death, thereby allowing them to recover his body and cremate it.

At stake is an estimated $18 million in cash, and property assets around the world worth 10 times that amount.

“Of course he is dead,” says S.P. Soi, the lawyer representing the family, “he has been lying in a freezer for the last four and a half months!”

Medical reports submitted to the court stipulate that when Ashutosh Maharaj was first examined by doctors on January 29 “all peripheral pulses were absent...blood pressure was not recordable.”

“No spontaneous respiratory movements...all superficial and deep reflexes were absent. Both pupils fixed and dilated,” says the medical report. “ECG record showed absence of any electrical activity. The patient was pronounced clinically dead at 02.15 AM on 29/1/2014 in consultation with all doctors.”

According to Mr Soi, the movement’s elder disciples want to keep alive the rumour of Maharaj’s resurrection in order to keep the donations rolling in.

“If people believe he is alive, then people will keep giving money. If he is dead, then they are afraid there is no way to keep the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan movement alive.”

After founding the religious order in 1983, Maharaj managed to expand into 15 countries around the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. On the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan website, the movement claims to have around 30 million followers.

Mission spokesman Swami Vishalanand was unavailable for comment on Friday, but one of his aides who asked not to be named because she was not authorised to speak publicly, chastised the international media for mocking the religious order’s beliefs and challenged sceptics to investigate samadhi.

“My guru has transcended to a state of contemplation with the supreme spirit, a remarkable and astonishing achievement that only saints are able to achieve and which must be celebrated,” said the aide. “No he is not dead, he is a living saint and he will be back to speak of his journey at the moment of his choosing.”

With Indian media reports claiming that a tussle over who would succeed Maharaj as the movement’s new spiritual leader was the real reason behind the failure to publicly accept his death, the aide described the reports as “defamatory lies that should be prosecuted by an international court”.

“Isn’t it a fundamental human right to be able to choose one’s religious beliefs? Why are we suddenly the target of all this mocking, when in other countries you are not allowed to make fun of someone’s religion?”

With the next court hearing to decide the matter scheduled for July 11, the lawyer representing Maharaj’s family believes the police will eventually be forced to enter the guru’s compound to recover the body.

A similar situation occurred in 1993 when the followers of Calcutta-based guru Balak Brahmachari refused to cremate his body for nearly two months, also insisting that he would recover from a "meditative trance".

It eventually took 450 policemen to force their way past fierce protesters to enter Brahmachari’s religious centre on the outskirts of the city and take away his decomposing body for cremation.

With 500 to 600 disciples living on the Maharaj’s Punjab compound, and barricades deployed on the road leading up to the estate to ensure that no unauthorised persons can enter, seizing Maharaj’s body will be a difficult challenge.

“How could anyone possibly suggest the cremation of a living saint who has achieved samadhi,” said Maharaj’s aide. “Let us instead wait for him to wake up and speak to us of his journey.”